Our 90 year old bungalow is in very good shape-over the years we have installed a new kitchen, two new bathrooms, and a bedroom.
We have also finished the basement (a livingroom and bedroom).
For the age of the house, it looks good on the outside as well (new windows and front door).
Our problem-the house has some weird things going on-our dogs will not enter the basement-when forced, they will bolt upstairs as soon as possible.
Cabinet doors open and close by themselves.
The upstairs bedroom walls vibrate in the early morning-we have a large wall mirror that makes a tapping sound against the wall-this hapens from 6 AM till about 8 AM.
Recently, the older female dog (Daisy) was sleping downstairs on the sofa-she started whining and crying at 2 AM-I went downstairs-and nothing was there-she went upstairs and fell asleep.
When we list the house, do we have to disclose this?

If, as you say in the OP, your "hose" is haunted, you need to see a doctor.

But if you meant your house, I might be able to help, as I am a Realtor, but my license and knowledge is only valid in my own state. Your state may be different.

You are required by law to disclose any material adverse fact that you know about that could affect the value of the property. If you tell your agent about any of these, he/she is also obligate to disclose to any buyer.

The question often comes up about a haunted house, which seems to fall in the ambiguous area between a broken light (probably not material adverse) and a leak in the roof (probably material adverse). Since no one can prove that ghosts exist or a house is really haunted to scientific certainty, a case could be made that you don't have to disclose something that doesn't exist.

And the problem with your dog might be due to something you haven't considered; a smell, a sound that only your dog detects. And older houses often develop noises. Why not have a contractor or home inspector look at those?

However, it is a maxim that disclosure is always the best policy. If you give a written disclosure which is signed by the buyer, then the buyer can never come back and sue you later.

OTOH, you could hire a priest and pay for an exorcism. If you do, get a certification from the priest that the house is now paranormal-free. (Just kidding; I don't know if priests do that.)

If your house is a local tourist attraction because it's known for being haunted, it falls under the category of "stigmatized property" because the traffic may disturb future residents. On the other hand, if it's not, just hire an exorcist and be done with it.

You only have to worry if you sell to someone who is stupid enough to believe in ghosts. To get the skinny on how the law treats this problem in your jurisdiction, consult a lawyer, but obviously you will not do this because you are allergic to lawyers.

If I were house hunting and a seller disclosed that the house was haunted I'd be worried that a relative or someone like that could come along later and say they weren't competent to enter into the sales contract using their belief that the house was haunted as evidence. Just keep it to yourself.

In New York, you must disclose, although it's not clear that this would apply in a case where you haven't previously advertised the house as haunted. Elsewhere, I'm not aware of it having been litigated.

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This post is not intended to provide reliable legal advice, nor is any other post by me in this or any other thread. I am not your lawyer and you are not my client. Odds are good that I'm not even licensed in your jurisdiction. If you follow what you think is advice in this post and get screwed, don't come crying to me.

If I understand it correctly, in California you do not have to disclose whether someone died in the house, but you do have to answer truthfully if the buyer asks. That's not far from having to disclose a suspected haunting.

I watched an episode of "Infested" a few days ago, where a family moved into a beautiful 100 year old house. They thought the house was haunted because it made all sorts of weird noises- mostly at night, their dogs acted weird, the walls vibrated, cabinets opened, etc. Turns out there was a huge rat infestation. Tens of thousands of them were living inside the walls

A friend of mine recently bought a house, and the agent informed her that one of the previous owners had drank (drunk?) himself to death in the house. She assured my friend that an exorcism had taken place, just in case. To which my friend basically replied "oh that sucks, I would have paid extra for a house that came with a drunken ghost!"

We bought our current house from the parents of the owner who died - I don't know if he died in the house or not, though. It doesn't seem particularly haunted, except by the ghost of the smokers who lived in it at one point (we bought it as a non-smoking house - someone somewhere lied to us).

I am a Realtor. This question comes up frequently as a continuing education test question for distinguishing between a "material fact" that would impact value vs non-relevant information to a buyer.

In your case the answer is "no". The only case in which you might have to disclose the possibility of the house being "haunted" would be if it had a public reputation or was otherwise famous or notorious for being a haunted house. It is not considered to be a material fact if you personally suspect your house is haunted by ghosts. If your house has a public reputation for being a haunted house, or even if you have publically talked it up or written about it as a possibility, that is a material fact which could potentially impact value as potential buyers perception of the house as a desirable place to live may be negatively impacted.

Keep your mouth shut and no worries. Chat it up and take your chances.

I know this is off topic a bit but I recently sold my home and moved into a rental. The rental was previously owned by a close friend of mine who died suddenly.

His daughter inherited the house and I and my dog moved in about 3 months after her father died.

Since day one weird things have been happening. My dog refuses to go downstairs at night and wakes up barking her fool head off at 5am for no reason I can discern...a behavior she never exhibited before. Since I am the only one living there no one else has access yet items left on counters are now found in places I KNEW I did not put them there. Sounds at night have woken me up and it has got so bad that I scream "Cut it out Andy!" and, strangely enough, he does.

After living there about 6 months the strange going on's have tapered off.

Hi! I want to start by letting you know I once did paranormal research. So I'm sorry if I'm "wordy." There are many reasons that you may be having these phenomena, beyond that of the paranormal. The mirror, for example: I used to live near a metal press company and right around 5/6a.m. it'd go off. My apartment would literally shift. If your mirror is loose and you live anywhere near a company such as the one I mention, even a landscaping company, that MAY answer that situaion. As for the dogs, I'm more of a "cat person" so I can't answer much about dogs, but growing up I had a few and I do know they grow lonely and will whine (esp as they grow older) at night as sight goes... or maybe s/he just missed you!

BUT your question was should you reveal a spirit in the home? I, personally, wouldn't mind owning a home which was "otherwise inhabited" , but I imagine MOST people would. Considering the market, and how rough it's been, I'd say no. And my reason below is why:

See, a house may, indeed, have otherworldly visitors; however, sometimes the PEOPLE (in our case, you) who see/experience things, do so only becasue they ARE CAPABLE/OPEN MINDED to such activity. The next family may not be that way. Perhaps we are "all tuned" in to some level, some more than others. Have these experiences been at all DANGEROUS in any manner? If not, again, I'd say No to disclosure.

There are times a person, individually, gets a spirit attached to him or her! In that case, sorry to say, it goes with that person usually to wherever said person goes. Eventually. There's more to that but that's a book in itself and would not affect resale.

So, unless you know someone who is into this type of thing, and your experiences have NOT BEEN of any DANGEROUS type (no extreme insomnia, depression, arguments where no issues existed prior) then I'd just let the dead be.